Techno‐economic assessment on the fuel flexibility of a commercial scale combined cycle gas turbine integrated with a CO2 capture plant

Post‐combustion carbon capture is a valuable technology, capable of being deployed to meet global CO2 emissions targets. The technology is mature and can be retrofitted easily with existing carbon emitting energy generation sources, such as natural gas combined cycles. This study investigates the effect of operating a natural gas combined cycle plant coupled with carbon capture and storage while using varying fuel compositions, with a strong focus on the influence of the CO2 concentration in the fuel. The novelty of this study lies in exploring the technical and economic performance of the integrated system, whilst operating with different fuel compositions. The study reports the design of a natural gas combined cycle gas turbine and CO2 capture plant (with 30 wt% monoethanolamine), which were modelled using the gCCS process modelling application. The fuel compositions analysed were varied, with focus on the CO2 content increasing from 1% to 5%, 7.5% and 10%. The operation of the CO2 capture plant is also investigated with focus on the CO2 capture efficiency, specific reboiler duty and the flooding point. The economic analysis highlights the effect of the varying fuel compositions on the cost of electricity as well as the cost of CO2 avoided. The study revealed that increased CO2 concentrations in the fuel cause a decrease in the efficiency of the natural gas combined cycle gas turbine; however, rising the CO2 concentration and flowrate of the flue gas improves the operation of the capture plant at the risk of an increase in the flooding velocity in the column. The economic analysis shows a slight increase in cost of electricity for fuels with higher CO2 contents; however, the results also show a reduction in the cost of CO2 avoided by larger margins.